Cherry Hill police search for suspect in cruiser theft

A police search continued Monday for a burglary suspect who escaped capture Sunday by stealing a squad car after being caught breaking into a Cherry Hill electronics store.

Investigators have some leads, but Cherry Hill Police spokesman Lt. William Kushina declined to go into detail. "We're making some good progress," he said Monday.

Police gave this account:

Shortly before 4 a.m. Sunday, they got a call about a break-in at the Best Buy store in the Garden State Park center on Route 70. Officers found the rear loading door caved in from being rammed by a car. Outside was a van, which two men and one woman had just finished loading with flat-screen televisions.

The thieves took off, one in the car and two in the van. Both vehicles were later discovered to be stolen. The vehicles split up. The man abandoned his car near the Loews theater on Route 38 and ran into woods. When police chased him, the man backtracked and jumped into one of their cars.

"The guys think they have it locked down, but somehow he managed to get out of the perimeter and got into an unattended police car and took off," Kushina said. The vehicle was later discovered in the Waterfront South neighborhood of Camden, where it had been torched.

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Police followed the other two suspects to Evesham. After being stopped, the two ran from the van. A K-9 unit tracked the woman, who was arrested. The male with her escaped.